16 new trains to be launched shortly

NEW DELHI: Railways today announced launching of 16 new trains including two Durontos and one Shatabdi as part of its budget commitments.

The 16 trains will be launched in the next 10 days as per our budget announcement, Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal told reporters here.

He said while four trains were part of the 2011-12 Rail Budget, 12 are from the current budget.

Chennai-Madurai Duronto, Chennai-Trivandrum Duronto and Jaipur-Agra Shatabdi Express announced in the last year budget will be flagged off this month.

Other trains include Barrackpore-Azamgarh Express, Chhapra-Manduadih Intercity Express, Visakhapatnam-Chennai Express, Karimnagar-Tirupati Express and Adra-Bishnupur and Adra-Asonsol passenger trains, announced in the current budget proposals, are to be launched shortly.

Railways also announced the extension of New Delhi- Ludhiana Shatabdi Express up to Moga.

Bansal also announced about the filling up about 2 lakh posts in railways.

"Railways had more than 2 lakh vacant posts. Out of that till now 1.2 lakh have already being recruited through rail recruitment boards. For the rest, process is on to fill those vacant posts," he said.

In order to make passengers getting train tickets a hassle-free exercise, Bansal said, "We are working out IT-based solution to make ticketing process more simple and hassle-free. The aim is to how the genuine passengers can be benefited."

He said CRIS and IRCTC are working out to strengthen the ticketing websites.

Commenting on long pending projects, Bansal said we have identified certain projects... There are many projects pending for long so we have to prioritise those projects. It is time to revisit those projects."

About the proposed multi-crore locomotive factories at Madhepura and Marhora in Bihar, he said, "That is a priority area and we are working on it.